Coverage of the 2009 World Championships made possible with the support of Shimano

Comments from CC editor Rob Jones who has been onsite in Switzerland all week.

"The crowds were already arriving 2.5 hours before the start of the race, and the press room is full of Italians. The espresso machine is going to burn out... Everyone picks the Italians and Spanish as the big favourites.

were chased down on lap 3 and then joined on lap 4 by the 4 additional: Gorazd Stangelj (Slovenia) Mauricio Ardila (Columbia) Olegs Melehs (Latvia) Volodymyr Zagorodny (Ukraine) and quickly extended the gap to 5:49 by the end of the 4th lap

At the end of lap 5 the gap was 6:42

At the end of lap 6 it was 10:06

Canadians are in the bunch: Barry 90th, Tuft 196th and Hesjedal 197th

Now on Lap 7:

93.8 km completed at 6:59 am and the gap is still increasing (now 10:16) as they head to complete the lap and start the 8th lap

Barry sitting 154th, Tuft 162nd and Hesjedal is dropped off the back, not too sure if he has had a mechanical? but he is over 7 min behind the bunch, so it may be over for him. He has company back there though with Roger Hammond and Andy Schleck also off the back

6:09 is the gap at 8:24 am EDT

Leaders have lost Olegs Melehs (Latvia) to a flat, now chasing back at 20 sec down

at the end of the lap - Barry sitting 24th, Tuft 174 and no Hesjedal

Lap 12 starting at 8:30 am

gap now 5:29 with 149 km completed

An attack now by a group of 5 off the front of the peloton and then another attack went by 4 more.

Lap 13 - 8:59 am EDT

At the start of the lap : Lead group, now 9 after having lost the Latvian, have a gap of 3:28 min on the first chase group. Chase group 2 is at 3:39 and the peloton is at 5:35